


It's not the end of the world. It is the beginning of a new one

by ancientbear



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Episode: s08e10 In the Forest of the Night, F/M, Fluff, Fluff In The End, One Shot, The Earth is destroyed by the Sun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:53:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28557915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancientbear/pseuds/ancientbear
Summary: The Sun has destroyed the Earth and Clara has lost her home, but the Doctor will always be there to support Clara despite everything.
Relationships: Twelfth Doctor/Clara Oswin Oswald
Kudos: 6





	It's not the end of the world. It is the beginning of a new one

**Author's Note:**

> I must say that English is not my native language and this is my first time writing in English, I tried my best but it'll contain mistakes. If you can say what I'm doing wrong I'll be very glad to listen to you.

Honestly, this is not what the Doctor expected to happen to Earth. The Doctor and Clara used the Tardis to view from space the heatwave sent by the Sun. The Doctor counted on the Earth to emerge unscathed from that catastrophe, not the opposite.

The Doctor and Clara traveled countless times into the future and Earth had always been present in all those futures. But now, in the present, the Earth no longer existed and will never exist again. This particular moment is one of those moments that change the course of history that the Doctor explained to Clara when they were on the Moon.

And there were the Doctor and Clara, in the Tardis, witnessing how the history of the Earth ends right in front of their eyes. Clara was next to the Doctor with a shocked face.

Her eyes were so wide that it looked like they were going to fall out of her sockets, she wasn't even able to articulate words. Clara witnessed her homeworld perish before her, consumed by flames sent by the same Sun that had been illuminating and warming the Earth.

Clara fell to her knees beside the Doctor and sobbed at his feet. All humanity was reduced to nothing and now Clara is the last vestige in the entire universe of what was left of the human race. Clara traveled with the Doctor throughout the universe and met countless forms of life other than human beings and infinite planets, both inhabited and uninhabited, but now the universe felt empty and desolated to Clara.

All the people Clara met back on Earth are now dead. Danny and her whole class had been with her fifteen minutes ago, but now they are gone. Her father and grandmother are dead, consumed by the catastrophe. Linda too.

Clara was still crying at the Doctor's feet. Tears fell freely down her cheeks onto the collar of her blouse, some of them even falling onto the worn floor of the Tardis. The Doctor was completely paralyzed next to Clara. He had already gone through a situation identical to the one Clara is going through right now, he knew first-hand the feelings and emotions that Clara could be feeling right now in her small body, but still, he didn't know what to say to comfort her because he knew there were no words enough to stop her pain. The only thing the Doctor could do was put his hand on Clara's trembling shoulder.

The Doctor's touch on her shoulder seemed to bring Clara back to bitter reality. Clara got up from the ground completely angry and faced the Doctor.

"You knew this, right?" Clara yelled angrily. "You knew that the Earth was going to be destroyed by the Sun."

Now it was the Doctor's turn to open his eyes wide.

"How can you think that of me, Clara?" asked the Doctor, offended.

In the blink of an eye, Clara slapped the Doctor across the face. The Doctor took a couple of steps back away from her with one hand touching her sore cheek. Although his cheek continued to hurt, it hurt less than Clara thinking that he was responsible for this horrible situation. The Doctor couldn't blame Clara.

"Don't you dare lie to me Doctor, don't you dare. Because the next slap I give you will make you regenerate again,” she screamed again as the tears continued to fall freely down her face.

"I was completely sure that the Earth was going to be undamaged," said the Doctor. "You also saw that ancient life form protecting the Earth. I never knew this was going to end this way."

Clara screamed again, feeling completely lost and angry. She needed to focus her anger on someone and the only person who was near her was the Doctor because there were no more human beings left in the universe. Only she.

The Doctor approached Clara again.

"Clara, my Clara," said the Doctor. "Of all the living beings in this universe through time and space, I am probably the only one who can understand how you are feeling right now. It's normal if you are angry and scared by everything that happened. I don't blame you and I don't want you to blame yourself for something you had no control over."

Clara glared at the Doctor and contorted her face in pain. She raised her hand above her head ready to slap the Doctor one more time, but he didn't back down, he just flinched slightly and prepared to receive a slap that never came. Clara closed her open hand into a fist so tightly that her skin turned white and quickly smashed her fist on the Tardis's console. The Doctor said nothing.

"No, Doctor, I'll never blame myself on my home planet's fate as you do on the fate of Gallifrey," she spat hatefully. She knew that she was being cruel by bringing up a very sensitive topic for the Doctor. It was a topic of conversation that they both avoided talking about, but Clara didn't care right now, she was suffering and she wanted him to suffer too.

Clara wanted to make the Doctor guilty even though deep down she knew that he couldn't have known about this situation. “I had nothing to do with the catastrophe that devastated my planet and if I had to perish along with the rest of my race, I would have done so without hesitation.”

"Clara, don't say those words again, I beg you," the Doctor whispered painfully. He couldn't believe Clara was using Gallifrey to hurt him. He was punishing himself enough with the destruction of Gallifrey. "Don't do this to me."

Right now Clara's head was a jumble of emotions. She knew that he was being cruel to the Doctor and didn't deserve the treatment she was giving him, but for Clara, he had led her to witness the destruction of the Earth, and right now he was the only one to blame.

"Change what just happened to Earth Doctor, change it," Clara ordered. The Doctor always said that he didn't take orders from anyone, but Clara knew it was a lie. She knew that the Doctor accepted her orders and respected the authority that she emanated.

The Doctor laughed bitterly. It was a laugh that perforated Clara's ears, leaving without a doubt that there was no turning back.

"Do you really think that if I could change the fate of Earth, Gallifrey would still be missing?" The Doctor explained.

Clara shook her head. This wasn't convincing her.

"I've seen you change many events since we first met. Do it,” she ordered again.

"Right, I can change things, but doing so would unleash unimaginable consequences that cannot be controlled," the Doctor explained. "It would change everything that is already written and that should not be done. It is prohibited for a very good reason and I am sorry to tell you that I cannot change the fate of the Earth, it is already written. The only thing you can do is keep fighting and living in this universe."

"It's all your fault," she yelled again. Clara walked around the Tardis like a caged animal looking for a way to escape this realistic nightmare. "I told you that I didn't want to be the last of my kind and now I am lost in the universe, without a home, without family, and without friends."

The Doctor's patience was starting to wear thin.

"Sure, because I'm also very happy being the last of my kind," the Doctor shouted back to Clara. "I know that it is not easy being a species doomed to roam the universe for centuries."

Clara stopped walking and turned her back on the Doctor.

"Return me to Earth before this catastrophe occurs. Drop me off in London again with Danny and my students,” Clara pleaded.

The Doctor opened his eyes and shook his head.

"No, I'm not going to do it," the Doctor said as he walked away from the console. He couldn't afford to lose Clara, she meant a lot to him.

"Doctor, I know you can take me back to Earth with the Tardis, and don't even think about lying to me with your stupid excuses," Clara said.

The Doctor stared at Clara impassively.

"No," said the Doctor firmly.

"Do it," Clara ordered. "Do what you are told."

"Please, Clara," the Doctor supplicated. "Don't make me do it."

Clara walked across the Tardis quickly and slapped the Doctor hard.

"I'll keep slapping you Doctor until you say yes," Clara threatened darkly. "I will keep slapping you until you cannot continue to regenerate or until you agree to take me back to Earth."

Silence completely invaded the Tardis. All that could be heard was Clara's shallow breathing and occasional sounds from the Tardis. The Doctor and Clara were staring at each other so intently that they could pierce each other's souls.

“No.”

The sound of another slap echoed through the Tardis. The Doctor held her gaze and Clara could see in his eyes that taking her back to Earth wasn't among the Doctor's plans. He had already decided it and no matter how much Clara ordered him to, nothing was going to change it. Clara ran to the control console and released the handbrake on the Tardis.

"Take me back to Earth before it's destroyed by the Sun," Clara supplicated to the Tardis.

Clara had lost all hope and her last chance was to supplicate to the Tardis. To Clara and the Doctor's surprise, the Tardis began to dematerialize as she continued floating through space. The Doctor flew back to the command console and pressed various buttons and levers to prevent the Tardis to reach its destination, but the time machine seemed to ignore its owner's desperate orders. The Tardis already had a marked course.

Within seconds the Tardis appeared again in the middle of one of London's leafy streets about fifteen minutes before the flare sent by the Sun destroy the Earth. The Doctor ran quickly from the console to the door to stand between Clara and her death.

"I'm not going to let you go out there and kill yourself, not if I can stop it," said the Doctor. "I don't know why the Tardis listened to you and brought you back to London at this very moment, but I can't allow it, I won't."

Clara faced the Doctor once more.

"Stand back now, Doctor."

"Don't condemn the human race to extinction Clara, you can go on living," said the Doctor hopefully. "You don't have to die today."

"I don't want to have to carry the responsibility and constant pressure of being the last of my kind," Clara confessed.

"I am the last of the Time Lords. I'm not going to lie to you, it's not easy or fair, but being the last one is what drives me to continue living in this universe."

"What do you care what happens to the human race after witnessing what just happened," Clara snapped as she pushed the Doctor aside to head outside.

"If you are unable to save the human race, Clara Oswald, save the fate of this universe," the Doctor declared grimly. Clara stopped right at the door with her hand still on the handle and slowly turned to face the Doctor.

"My Clara, if I lose you right now," said the Doctor desperately. "I will break all the existing rules that I am never supposed to break and rewrite the fate of this universe so I can save you, and I don't care if I destroy this universe in the process. I am the last Lord of Time and you know I can do it."

The Doctor saw Clara's eyes go glassy with tears threatening to fall. The Doctor slowly took Clara's hands and kissed them gently.

"You'll be the last of your kind, but so I am, and we have each other," the Doctor whispered. "You won't be alone, we'll be together forever."

"Don't promise something you can't keep Doctor," Clara answered sadly. "My life expectancy compared to yours is very short."

"I would give you my other heart when the time comes so that you can live with me forever."

“Nothing is eternal.”

"My love for you is," the Doctor confessed to Clara. "So don't do this to me and let's leave this place once and for all."

"Sure Doctor," Clara replied softly, smiling with her eyes full of tears.

The Doctor and Clara hugged each other in silence and listened as the Tardis began to dematerialize without either of them marking a course on the console, it seemed that the Tardis had read the Doctor's thoughts and was taking them away from the Earth to a completely remote place in search of their next great adventure together.


End file.
